A recent incident at Gibraltar Secondary School serves as another reminder of the impact bullying could have on your children at school.

Last week, 17-year-old Aidan Rice said in a Door County courtroom that a former student led to him bringing a gun to Gibraltar for multiple days. In his criminal complaint, Rice said he was scared of a former student, a person who allegedly pounded on a bathroom door while he was at Wal-Mart a week prior. School Resource Officer Heather Bemmann stated that the unidentified student had not been on campus since last November. Rice added in the complaint that he knew it was illegal to bring the gun, but he had it to protect himself in case the former student showed up.

According to the National  Bullying Prevention Center that shows that one out of every five students report being bullied, and 41 percent of students who reported being bullied at school fear that it will occur again. Cami Peggar from the United Way of Door County’s STRIDE program says bullying can have a long-lasting effect on an individual, even outside of a school setting.

Adding to the stress of bullying is that it does not have to be done in person anymore. The National Bullying Prevention Center says the percentage of individuals who have experienced cyberbullying at some point in their lives has doubled since 2007, from 18 percent to 37 percent in 2019.